Hampton Sides: Ghost soldiers

By MARGIE THOMSON

The first 10 pages - depicting a massacre of US prisoners of war by Japanese in 1944 - are warning enough to propel you with a great sense of urgency through the remaining chapters.

The 1945 mission to rescue US soldiers taken prisoner by the Japanese on the Philippine peninsula of Bataan was desperate indeed, involving such hardship and danger that commanding officer Lt Colonel Henry A. Mucci wanted only volunteers.

"I only want men who feel lucky," he said. This intelligently told story brutally evokes the horrors of war.

Little Brown

$39.95